The New York Times picked up a story from The Journal of Ornithology, and credit for this post goes to their writing up the results of a study of cat predation. It was published on March 20, 2011, and it's nice to have somebody else, in this case, Elisabeth Rosenthal, do the writing.
A new study...on the mortality of baby gray catbirds in the Washington suburbs found that cats were the No. 1 killer in the area, by a large margin....[T]the researchers...affixed tiny radio transmitters to the birds to follow them. It is the first scientific study to calculate what fraction of bird deaths during the vulnerable fledgling stage can be attributed to cats.
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to 500 million birds are killed each year by cats — about half by pets and half by feral felines. ....By contrast, 440,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service....
He said the leading cause of bird deaths over all, as opposed to the catbird fledglings in the study, remained collisions with buildings, windows and towers, followed by predators.
Household cats were introduced in North America by European colonists; they are regarded as an invasive species and have few natural enemies to check their numbers. “They are like gypsy moths and kudzu — they cause major ecological disruption,” Dr. Marra said.
The scientists forgot one thing: they did not factor in how having a radio transmitter on one's body affects one's attention, and agility. Seriously!
A new study...on the mortality of baby gray catbirds in the Washington suburbs found that cats were the No. 1 killer in the area, by a large margin....[T]the researchers...affixed tiny radio transmitters to the birds to follow them. It is the first scientific study to calculate what fraction of bird deaths during the vulnerable fledgling stage can be attributed to cats.
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to 500 million birds are killed each year by cats — about half by pets and half by feral felines. ....By contrast, 440,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service....
He said the leading cause of bird deaths over all, as opposed to the catbird fledglings in the study, remained collisions with buildings, windows and towers, followed by predators.
Household cats were introduced in North America by European colonists; they are regarded as an invasive species and have few natural enemies to check their numbers. “They are like gypsy moths and kudzu — they cause major ecological disruption,” Dr. Marra said.
The scientists forgot one thing: they did not factor in how having a radio transmitter on one's body affects one's attention, and agility. Seriously!
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